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Climbing Everest by any means is an expensive operation. By the time you add up all the expenses such as: climbing insurance, air travel, training expenses, overland travel, personal climbing gear, communications equipment, climbing permits, expedition logistical fee’s, high altitude food, etc… the bottom line starts to look very daunting.

To put it into perspective – my 2011 attempt and my upcoming 2012 attempt on Everest have cost me well over S$100,000 dollars. And I am doing things rather modestly! I borrow gear whenever I can and I do not climb with the large expedition organizers who have enormous support, lavish base-camps and price tags almost double of what I am paying. To top this off I am away on the mountain for months at a time earning no salary, but the financial commitments at home remain. Mortgage repayments, car loans, rates, insurance, maintenance fee’s all keep rolling in even when the salary does not. Climbing is definitely not a lifestyle to follow if you want to become rich and famous!

As a climber wanting to attempt a mountain like Everest, I need the help of sponsors. I am proud to announce that I will be working again this year with the valuation specialists ‘John Foord’. John Foord is a multi-national specialist industrial valuation and appraisal company. John Foord will be the title sponsor of the expedition which is now officially named: ‘John Foord’s Axe On Everest 2012’.

I feel a very strong synergy with John Foord, from the first time we first started working together last year. Managing director Mr Graham Copland and Valuation director Mr Gregory Dickerson (who also happens to be a fellow kiwi), share the same down to earth value’s that I do. Perseverance, determination and a goal-oriented mindset.

Over the course of the next few months, in conjunction with John Foord, we will be holding pre-expedition and post-expedition presentation evenings on my Everest climb’s. To learn more about John Foord, click here.